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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725873">Honor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joking611/pseuds/Joking611'>Joking611</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cari'ssi'mi Drabbles [52]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:00:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725873</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joking611/pseuds/Joking611</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard's honor was often tested during the war, but not every sacrifice was hers.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cari'ssi'mi Drabbles [52]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/624863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Honor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This is Shepard! Give us your location.” The spectre’s frustration was obvious.</p><p>“I repeat, is anyone on this frequency?” Came the reply.</p><p>Shepard hesitated, a finger to her ear in an attempt to focus on the transmission.</p><p>Liara recognized what was happening, the indecision, the doubt. Sarah still hoped to make some good come from this goddess cursed mission.</p><p>She moved up behind the commander, ready to intervene. It was time to go. Liara knew it, Javik knew it, and deny it as she might, Sarah knew it too.</p><p>“We read you! Give me your-“ Shepard’s urgency bordered on desperation now as she listened to the radio chatter from the huntress squad they'd left behind.</p><p>“The lieutenant’s down. Our whole zone is collapsing!”</p><p>“What happened to Shepard? Did they make it to the temple?”</p><p>“I saw them- Wait. We’ve got a Reaper inbound!”</p><p>Not just one, Liara could see. Another wave of Reaper capital ships dropped into the city, firing as they fell. Liara took Shepard’s arm, pulling her back from the ledge, turning her away from the destruction unfolding before them.</p><p>“Please? Is anybody there?” The voice was weaker now. Exactly the kind of plea that Shepard had never been able to resist.</p><p>Liara took a calming breath, centering herself as Sarah pulled back towards the overlook. One step towards the burning city, then another. Liara could feel the pull the cry for help had on the commander. She felt it herself, but knew she had to be the strong one. Shepard’s survival was what was most important. The war was over if she died here, no matter how many she managed to save.</p><p>She waited with her arm outstretched, prepared to pull Sarah back by force if needed. She knew she’d have Javik’s help if necessary. He’d learned the requirements of sacrifice fifty thousand years before she’d been born.</p><p>But the commander stopped after only two steps, the longing look she cast out onto the battle conveying her pain to Liara as clearly as a meld.</p><p>Only for a moment. The mask was firmly in place as she turned back to Liara and Javik. She spared each a glance, the soldier in her categorizing each of her companions. She took in Javik’s stance, favoring one leg from where he’d been thrown by Leng. Liara displayed no physical injury, but her exhaustion was evident in her stance and on her face.</p><p>Shepard grunted as she stepped past them. “Move,” she muttered. Liara nodded as she passed, while Javik didn’t respond. Shepard was an emotional individual to be sure, but now was not the time to address those feelings, and Liara wouldn’t push.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>. . . . . . . . . . . . .</p><p><br/>
The return to the shuttle took almost as long as their advance on the temple, but for different reasons. Shepard dispatched the occasional husk that had the misfortune to cross their path, but the fighting had moved on.</p><p>There was almost no resistance, just the bodies of the huntresses who had been their allies.</p><p>Shepard confirmed the condition of each of the casualties. Most were unknown to her, but some she knew by name. Cayla, the sniper, was still in her overwatch position, one eye sighted along her weapon, performing her duty even in death.</p><p>Outpost Tykis was a crater.</p><p>Sarah didn’t linger, but she thanked each of them for their sacrifice.</p><p>The bridge was deserted, save for the bodies, but they maintained their pace towards the landing zone. The barrier to Lieutenant Kurin’s forward position was gone, obliterated. The lieutenant herself nowhere to be found.</p><p>Shepard pointed up to the shuttle as she jogged past to check the bodies of the fallen. Liara and Javik took up a defensive position behind a pile of rubble at the commander’s unspoken order.</p><p>Liara glanced to her wrist when her ‘tool alerted for attention, one signal among thousands flagged for priority status.</p><p>She toggled the channel open and a T’Soni emergency sigil appeared in the interface.</p><p>“Hello? Can anyone hear me?”</p><p>Liare blinked in surprise. “Jedis?” She whispered into the comm.</p><p>“Liara!” Came the excited reply.</p><p>“Jedis, where are you?”</p><p>The reply wasn’t immediate. “It’s Liara, she’s on the emergency frequency,” spoken to someone out of range of her pickup. “We’re at Mosoth. What are you doing on Thessia? I didn’t know the Normandy was in the system.” Even during war, Jedis fell into habits born of childhood friendship.</p><p>“Never mind that. Are you safe?” Liara realized the stupidity of the question even as she asked it.</p><p>“The building’s on fire and those <em>things</em> are everywhere.” She took a shuddering breath. “But Stallura and some of the House commandos managed to get the majority of us to the parking structure by Tiusra Square.”</p><p>“Most of the commandos didn’t make it,” she added before Liara had time to respond.</p><p>“What’s your situation?” She pressed, Jedis not having answered her original question.</p><p>“We have minutes at best, Peeress.” Jedis’ trembling voice had been replaced by Stallura’s composed one. The matriarch might as well have been discussing tomorrow’s weather. “Reaper forces are scouring the structure level by level, killing everyone they find. We may be able to reach the roof, but we aren’t going to last long once we’re exposed.”</p><p>“Should we try for the roof?” She asked when Liara didn’t reply.</p><p>Liara looked up from her cover. Even through the haze and distance she could see that the tower was heavily damaged. The Reaper capital ship alongside made an unthinkable situation impossible.</p><p>She turned to Javik and the stoic Prothean was already shaking his head. <em>‘You still have hope that this war will end with your honor intact,’</em> reverberated in her memory. The accusation had been directed at Shepard, and rightly so. Liara had no such hope. She’d never had.</p><p>But she still had hope for Shepard’s.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Stallura.”</p><p>“Understood, Peeress. I shall attend to things here. Signing off.” The finality in her tone stuck like a blow.</p><p>Liara closed the channel. “May you find peace in the arms of the goddess,” she whispered.</p><p>“Who was that?” Shepard stood at her shoulder, having checked the last of the victims.</p><p>Liara looked away. “No one,” she lied. “Interference.”</p><p>A pause at that. Time they couldn’t afford to spare with the Reapers advancing.</p><p>“Liara…”</p><p>“We have to go, Shepard.” Liara cut Shepard off as she stepped up to join Javik in the shuttle. “We can discuss this later.”</p><p>Sarah cast one last look at the burning city before she followed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For those unfamiliar with the Cari'ssi'mi series, Jedis Panya was introduced in Obligations, Ch 7, with Matriarch Stallura in Ch 8.</p><p>They've each been referenced occasionally since then.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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